A sweeping technological shift is transforming how Ordos city combats desertification, replacing labor-intensive methods with smart, high-efficiency solutions.

At a sand control site in Otog Front Banner on April 14, drones, robots, and satellite-guided machinery operated across vast dunes, marking a new phase in Ordos' fight against desert expansion along the Yellow River's "Great Bend".

Unmanned aerial vehicles can now seed up to 2,000 mu (133 hectares) of desert land per day. Meanwhile, trenching and planting machines equipped with the Beidou Navigation Satellite System operate at three times the efficiency of conventional equipment, and automated sand barrier machines can cover up to 56 mu daily.

One standout innovation is an intelligent sand barrier-laying and planting robot jointly developed by local forestry authorities and M Grass Group.

Capable of carrying 1,700 seedlings and 3 metric tons of water, the machine completes soil loosening, planting, covering, and irrigation autonomously. It adjusts planting depth and spacing based on soil moisture, boosting seedling survival rates from 60 percent to over 85 percent. A single unit can plant 1 mu of land in just 19 minutes – equivalent to the work of 120 skilled laborers.

The shift toward precision is also evident in monitoring systems. Previously reliant on manual surveying, forestry workers now use integrated air-space-ground technologies. Drones can map over 1,000 mu of desert in under an hour, generating high-resolution 3D terrain data with accuracy within 1 meter.

"To measure the same area manually used to take a full day, and the results were less precise," said Huo Feipeng, a local forestry official.

Water efficiency, a critical challenge in desert regions, has also improved. Each seedling is planted with a biodegradable nutrient container filled with water-retention agents and rooting compounds. This innovation allows trees to survive up to three months without additional irrigation, increasing survival rates by 20 to 30 percent while reducing water consumption.

By 2025, Ordos had completed desertification control across 19.05 million mu. Rehabilitation rates have reached 50 percent in the Kubuqi Desert and 85 percent in the Mu Us Sandy Land, marking significant progress in the region's ecological restoration.